'Gasland Part II' Director Josh Fox on the Fight Against Fracking

Tuesday, 23 April 2013 21:23

Three years after the Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland secured fracking a place in the global lexicon, director Josh Fox returns with Gasland Part II, which premiered this weekend at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

The sequel opens with quick cuts of Republicans and Democrats extolling the virtues of natural gas drilling, setting viewers up for a rollercoaster ride through government and corporate accountability. Like his first film, Fox spotlights the various health problems and water contamination issues facing individuals that live near gas wells.

Part II, which will premiere on HBO this summer, also charts the EPA's progress and interviews members of the the scientific community. Rolling Stone spoke with Fox about gas infrastructure and what it's like to get kicked off Capitol Hill.

What was your motivation to make a sequel to Gasland?The story wasn't over. We wanted to track whether or not there would be change, and what, if anything, was in the way of that. We also wanted to examine how this crisis is being handled by the government.

What new information did you learn?Because there's so much gas leakage in the fracking process and in the delivery systems, gas infrastructure is actually worse than coal in a 20-year time frame. It's leaking methane into the atmosphere, and methane is a greenhouse gas that is 105 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the 20-year time frame.